Days Past: Huntin' Injuns for sport

I love the historical articles that appear on weekends in the paper and the weekly Capitol Times. They're often pretty arcane in terms of relevance to history, but they deliver interesting stories of real people who walked our streets and shaped our communities not so long ago.

So with that anticipation going in, I was aghast reading today's entry, which gleefully recounts the pursuit of a small band of Apaches escaping from bondage and their eventual slaughter as an heroic "battle." The story is disgusting, and the language — "hostiles" for "people," "squaw" for "woman," for examples — which harks back to the bad old days of Manifest Destiny, and importantly the disinterest in presenting any context or contrasting view are shameful and callous. How would you react to this story if it was about the murders of your own relatives?

This should never have been accepted for publishing. I find it incredible that Sharlot Hall Museum would really allow its name attached to it.